A Michigan To Texas Birthday Wish 2018

Each year my friend Sandra gets photos from all her internet friends for her birthday. Hopefully, she gets a lot. This year I've sent along a photo of some clouds from a kayak excursion this past summer. The main cluster  looks kind of like a snail.

Season's Greetings

A little late in the day, but it still counts, right? A Happy Festivus to everyone.

Blinky

Blinky

5x7

colored pencil on mat board

This here blue guy is Blinky (voiced by Kelsey Grammar) on Guillermo del Toro's The trollhunters. 

Super fun to draw, for sure.

SOLD

Go Figure! Sketch Night At Rainy Day Art Supply

These were some of the better sketches from this past Saturday's live model sketch night at Rainy Day Art Supply. This time our model was Olivia Benton dressed as Catwoman and she did a great job putting up with us knuckleheads. Those knuckleheads, you ask? Well, they are some of the Detroit area's creative talents, such as Darin Palmer, Anne Garivaglia, Jay Fosgitt, Jim Anderson, Jay Shimko and our host, Kelly O'Hara, just to name a few (at least the ones that I know). It's a good setting, with friendly people and a good night out.

Rumor is... that a Klingon will be the next model.

Belle Isle Aquarium Holiday Stroll

Belle Isle's Holiday Stroll will take place tomorrow evening from 5-9. Stop on by the aquarium. The DIA and Pewabic Pottery will be on hand and there will be marshmallows to singe out front. That's where you can find me, helping to man the fire pits. Someone thought that having me around goo and fire would be a smart thing...

Visigoths

I swear this guy had hair on his knuckles. Why do they all look the same? Does their inner moron seep out into a physical manifestation? I don't know, but anyways, this clueless simpleton was a split second away from his skeletal structure being seriously compromised by the front end of my jeep. He literally stepped out in front of me without even thinking of looking. I couldn't even break, that's how close I was. All I could do was swerve away, hoping that no other vehicle was coming in that direction. And his response, you ask? He stood in the street, again, without looking for cars and puffed out his arms with an angry 'didn't YOU see ME' type of expression. He did have his phone in hand, but hadn't yet put it to ear (which I'm assuming was as hairy as his knuckles), so he wasn't distracted by that. He just wasn't going to look at all. 

Future. Organ. Donor.

Here's a link as to the inspiration for these periodical updates on our societal condition.

When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth?

Sanna emerging from her slumber inside a broken dinosaur egg. My childhood had wonderful imagery. And who knew about the fashionable hairstyles from these times?

A Bonefish Commission

This here is a recent commission for a bonefish type thing, based on the animal sugar skull watercolors that I did a couple of years back. They client wanted it to resemble a sculpture by an artist who's name wasn't mentioned. I didn't want to copy the sculpture exactly, being someone else's work, so I made some slight changes. So, if you see a metal bonefish sculpture hanging from a ceiling in a gallery (?) somewhere, this was based on that. 

Happy Fat Turkey Day

The Lions sucked today (what else is new?), so I sketched instead. Here's a fat turkey. Bon appetit!

Notice the soft white underbelly. That was intentional. 

Live Model Sketching

These are some of the sketches that I did this past Saturday night at the Go Figure! live model sketch night at Rainy Day Art Supply in Grosse Pointe Woods, MI. Our model this time was a young lass dressed as a luchador. These have been some fun sessions and it's always good to get in some live sketching with some blind and not so blind contour drawings, to boot. Good exercises!

Among the artists present were our host Kelly O'Hara, Darin Palmer, Anne Garavaglia, Jay Fosgitt and Jay Shimko. 

Stranger Things, Season 1 Artist Proof Sketch Cards

These are my APs fro, the Stranger Things, Season 1 set recently released through Topps. Here are the links for the online auctions:

Nancy Wheeler    The Demogorgon    Will Byers SOLD

Lucas Sinclair    Eleven    Eleven  

Canton Brew Works Comic Fest

This Saturday from 6-10pm you can find me in Canton, MI for the Canton Brew Works Comic Fest. This will be something of a Drink N Draw type thing. I will be set up there alongside fellow artists Jake Minor and Nathe Hoste and we will have all the usual stuff that we have at cons for sale. The only thing different will be the ability to have some drinks and hang out. Nerdery with booze. 

So, if you are in the area, come on out, support some local artists, a local brewery and have some fun.

Stranger Things, Season One Sketch Cards

Here are some of the sketch cards that I did for the Stranger Things, Season One set just recently released through Topps. 

Inktober Day 31: Slice

And there we go... 31 days of Inktober. Todays' word prompt is 'slice.'

Inktober Day 30: Jolt

The bride, she's electrifying!

Yesterday's word prompt was 'Jolt.' 

Inktober Day 29: Double

Yesterday's word prompt was 'double.'  So, ya get a Dr. Doolittle goat type creature. Tomorrow I will be right on track and have the final two up throughout the day.

Inktober Day 28: Gift

Day 28's word prompt was 'gift,' so here's a little humor headed your way.  Everyone likes pooches, right?

Inktober Day 27: Thunder

Day 27's word prompt was 'Thunder.' All the ideas that I had centered around a godly entity creating a thunder clap of some sort. I kind of liked this one the best, so I went with it, Zeus be damned!

Inktober Day 26: Stretch

The word prompt for Day 26 was 'stretch.' I imagine the arm pizza-like.

Inktober Day 25: Prickly

Ok, time too catch up on posting these Inktober thingies. I did them one a day, but haven't had access to a scanner much at all this past week, so here we go. Day 25's word prompt was 'Prickly.' 

There just aren't enough demon cactus stories out there. C'mon, it would write itself!

Inktober Day 24: Chop

Wednesday's word prompt was 'chop.' In keeping with the theme from our Florida excursion, I did this one in the airport in Orlando after our flight was delayed then outright cancelled. In flying, we are all just cattle, meat, sausage to be chopped whenever, however. In this case, the plane itself is the meat, all chopped up and ready to serve. If they feel like it, of course.

After I did this one, I thought that it looked like something that the NY based artist Tommy Kane might do, so I did a quick google search to see if I inadvertently ripped him off in some way. I didn't find anything, so perhaps I was just channeling my inner Kane. He's a wildly imaginative artist, so be sure to check out his work.

Inktober Day 23: Muddy

So, I did three of these while in Florida and wanted them to have something to do with what we were doing and going through. On this day, the word prompt was 'muddy' and we went on the King Kong: Skull Island ride and there were those centipede/worm type things that came out of the mud, so that is what I did, a muddy insect type monster.

Fantasticon Mt. Pleasant

This Saturday and Sunday, I will be set up in Artists Alley at the Fantasticon event taking place at the Soaring Eagle Casino in Mt. Pleasant, MI. This was a very good show last year and is shaping up to be even better. They have a good line up of veteran comic book artists, such as Michael Golden and Pat Broderick, among others. Stop on by and check it out!

Inktober Day 22: Expensive

While I was in Florida these past few days I did manage to do my Inktober sketches at the hotel and airport each day, so I will play catch up with what I've done. This day's word prompt was 'expensive.' Since i was at the Salvador Dali Museum on this day, I chose to depict the time when Dali sold his signature to be made as a stamp to be put on prints. One of his friends came up with the anagram Avida Dollars. Hence, expensive.

Inktober Day 21: Drain

Today's Inktober word prompt is 'Drain.' I was going to go with some unfortunate soul being drained of his life fluids while those said fluids were going down the drain, kind of a double whammy, but went with the tentacle instead. Who doesn't like tentacles? Tentacles, I said tentacles. 

Inktober Day 20: Breakable

Today's word prompt is 'breakable,' so here is the breakable guy from the film Unbreakable. 

Inktober Day 19: Scorched

Today's Inktober word prompt is 'scorched.' 

Inktober Day 18: Bottle

Today's Inktober word prompt is 'bottle.' So yeah, a head in a....

Inktober Day 17: Swollen

My apologies to frogs everywhere, but this guy is swollen in places amphibians aren't. Swollen head,  swollen hair, swollen ass, swollen gut, swollen gizzard... You get the idea. 

Scary shit, I know, but it is that time of year.

Inktober Day 16: Angular

Today's word prompt is 'angular.'

So, this is the Angular Mangler? 

Inktober Day 15: Weak

I can't think of anything weaker than these mental midgets. They carry tiki 'torches' for pete's sake.

Superior race, my ass.

Inktober Day 14: Clock

Ok, so all caught up for now. Today's word prompt is 'clock.'

Will we be able to figure it out before times runs out?

Inktober Day 13: Guarded

Because of yesterday's Witch event in Wyandotte I'm a little late in getting the next sketch up. It was almost done yesterday, but alas, wasn't meant to be. So, here is 'guarded.' I'll see what I can do about today's word prompt and if not the tomorrow.

In the meantime, don't touch my pumpkin.

Inktober Day 12: Whale

Today's word prompt is 'whale.' This whale skull belongs to that of a Culver's beaked whale.

Someone should make a movie about animal skeletons and ghosts that come back to haunt us for all the cruelty inflicted on them by us. That would be cool.

Inktober Day 11: Cruel

Today's Inktober word prompt is 'Cruel.' 

And that's what this is, plain and simple.

Inktober Day 10: Flowing

A little splash of color for today's Inktober image. Otherwise, it could be thought of as something else, you know, something just plain old wrong.

Anyways, today's word prompt is 'flowing.' 

Witches of Wyandotte

This Saturday, the 13th, you will find me at the River's Edge Gallery in Wyandotte, MI for Shop The Dotte's event Witches of Wyandotte. So, I am hearing that there will be a parade of witches through the downtown area and maybe some kind of zombie event later in the day. The event goes from 11am to 6pm, so join me and gallery director and all-around fun guy Jeremy Hansen for the festivities. I will be doing sketches and will have my more horror related prints and such for sale. I will even bring some copies of my latest collection of cartoons, The Feral Cartoonist, which does have a horror/crime section, so it fits. 

So, click on the above links for details and if you are in the area, stop on by. It should be interesting.

Inktober day 9: Precious

So, the word 'Precious' is going to elicit one of two responses by artists for this day's Inktober drawing. I chose the obvious one.

Although, I did toy with the idea of a very large Gollum....

Inktober Day 8: Star

So, here we are a week in to the Inktober challenge. So far so good. Today's prompt word is 'Star.' I was going to do a cheesy cartoon star, a literal cartoon star as a celebrity type star, but thought it would be more appropriate to do something with Lou Reed, since I am currently reading his bio. So, I tried to portray this star as an aging star/person, but with the Velvet Underground glasses. I'm not sure just what Reed thought of stardom, it seems like it was a difficult balance even if he desired it. I don't think that Lou Reed ever pretended to be hopeful or optimistic, but I do believe he was striving for it.

Stars in the eyes of a rock n roll animal.

Inktober Day 7: Exhausted

I was going to add spears stuck in this guy's torso, but then thought that that might not add to the sense that a dead guy is exhausted. Exhausted is exhausted. But then again, it could have provided a little more of a backstory...

Inktober Day Seven.

Inktober Day Six: Drooling

'Drooling' is today's Inktober word prompt and trying to keep with a more Halloween vibe, here is the most thoughtful zombie ever. He has a bowl that he can collect his own drool in. But then again, since he doesn't have a lower jaw, perhaps the drool is to soften those brains some. It could go either way, he looks a bit crazy.

Inktober Day Five: Chicken

So, what is better than a chicken playing chicken? It would be a lot of noise (assuming that they were bad-ass chickens), probably a lot of feathers and hopefully, entertaining.

The coupe from the coop!

As you have already assumed, todays Inktober prompt word is 'chicken.'

Inktober Day Four: Spell

Today's Inktober word prompt is 'Spell.'

I wonder just how many used a wizard or witch for their image. Mine is kind of a nerdy wizard, maybe a professor of sorts who likes letters. And chalkboards. 

Inktober Day Three: Roasted

Inktober Day Three's prompt word is Roasted. So, what is the human equivalent of bacon. The pig is sure to know.